Finding It Difficult to Feel Gratitude? Here's How Working With the Nine Palaces Can Help: Part 2 - Stone Medicine

By Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

The Nine Palaces relate to areas that we all seek to find a sense of peace and completion in our lives. The ancient system of Stone Medicine can help you have support in any of these areas you find challenging to cultivate peace and gratitude.

The Nine Palaces and Five Elements

The Nine Palaces of life are:

1. Health

2. Wealth (also called the Abundance Palace)

3. Prosperity (also called the Fame Palace)

4. Relationship (Love)

5. Children/Creativity

6. Career

7. Global (Travel & Adventure)

8. Knowledge (Wisdom)

9. Home

Each of the Nine Palaces correspond to a particular Five Element energy. To learn more about each palace and its Five Element correspondence, you can read Part 1 of this series.

My Personal Journey With Stone Medicine

When I first heard about Stone Medicine I thought it was rather ridiculous and not practical for my life or clinical practice as an Acupuncturist and Herbalist.

My interest and openness grew however when I was introduced to the history and clinical applications of this ancient form of Chinese Medicine by our teacher and 88th generation Daoist Master, Dr. Jeffrey Yuen. Following this introduction, I started to play around with the knowledge I gathered in the use of stones for some health challenges my family and I had.

I became amazed by the miraculous healing experiences I witnessed.

Needless to say, from that time on, my curiosity on the use of stones for healing grew and I began to submerge myself in learning about this esoteric yet potent form of medicine.

Historically, in Classical Chinese Medicine, stones were considered the most powerful form of herbal medicine as they have the most permanent effect on one’s healing.

With this said, I’ve gained not only a tremendous amount of respect for stone medicine, but a high level of reverence for the healing Spirit of these amazing pieces of nature.

Below I discuss how some common healing stones have been used historically to enhance these different areas we call the Nine Palaces to help you find a sense of peace and gratitude where you may be now struggling in your life.

Stone Talismans to Support You to Find Completion in the Nine Palaces

Use green stones that relate to the Wood element to increase a sense of well-being and give you support in the First Palace of Health. Green Jade and Green Aventurine can be held during meditation (15 minutes 3-4x/day) or worn daily as jewelry such as a necklace or bracelet (men wear on left wrist, women on right wrist) to support your health and well-being.

Sunstone is another important stone to support your Health Palace and although it isn’t green, its glistening orange color brings the power of the sun to brighten your day and help lift you out of the doldrums of negativity. It’s also a stone high in iron so it can help increase your Qi and immunity. So if you tend to feel fatigued or have a sullen and somber mood, keep a piece of Sunstone nearby or in your pocket!

Second is the Palace of Wealth & Abundance. The main stone to help you feel a sense of completion in your Wealth Palace is Lapis. Lapis strengthens your Liver blood to support your Wood energy and help you feel financially abundant. It’s a common stone used in jewelry and small specimens can be held or placed in your home to attract resources into your life as well. This can especially be supportive for women during their menstrual cycles when losing blood can leave them feeling empty with a sense of lack in their lives.

A beautiful blue-green Chrysocolla sphere

Another blood building stone is Chrysocolla, which is especially useful if you’re feeling irritable or angry about your circumstances related to this palace. Chrysocolla is a beautiful blue-green stone that can be held for emotional support, worn as jewelry or placed in your home to spread its energy throughout your environment.

The Third Palace is about Prosperity and Fame. Fame is about feeling recognized and acknowledged in your life while Prosperity is about feeling you have enough to share with others. Relating to the element of Fire, both of these attributes can be supported by the beautiful Amethyst crystal. Amethyst can be placed in any area of your home to accentuate the 9 Palaces and is also a common jewelry stone worn as earrings, pendants, rings, and bracelets. Another stone that is popular as jewelry to help activate this Fire based palace is Labradorite. Labradorite is a powerful talisman to gather your Yang Qi so it can vibrantly shine outward and help you attract attention and recognition. Labradorite is easily found as large specimens which can be used to help radiate vibrant energy into your work space or home.

The Fourth Palace is about Relationships and Love. If you feel challenged in terms of relationships and having enough love in your life, then supporting your Fire element with a stone talisman can support you to find peace and completion in these areas. Morganite is a very powerful stone used to attract love into your life in terms of a partnership. Rose Quartz is another popular stone that is used.

Morganite is commonly worn as jewelry so if you’re trying to establish a healthy, loving relationship, you might try wearing a bracelet, ring or necklace that contains Morganite. A small sphere of Rose Quartz on the other hand will help spread the vibration of love throughout your home. I recommend keeping a Rose Quartz crystal in your bedroom if you’re looking to attract a romantic relationship.

The Fifth Palace of Children and Creativity is also supported by Rose Quartz which is said to enhance fertility. Rose Quartz supports creativity by warming your Yang Qi to act on those creative impulses held within your heart. Another popular stone that makes beautiful jewelry to support fertility is Fire Opal. Wear it daily if you are trying to conceive a child.

Other stones that can be placed in your home to help activate the Metal element and help birth those creative ideas you’ve long held inside are Fluorite, Celestite and Gold or Silver Sheen Obsidian which can be found as lovely specimens that act as powerful intentional talismans. A system of Temple Feng Shui suggests placing these stones in the Northwest part of your home to support you in the palace of Creativity.

The Sixth Palace is your Palace of Career. Career relates to the Water Element and the colors blue and black. Dark Grey Moonstone is a lovely stone that can be worn as jewelry to support you if you’re having career challenges. Black Onyx is another common jewelry stone that can strengthen your Water energy and support you in your career.

Sugilite is one of the most powerful of all stones and is said to support the healing of all diseases. Sugilite is a beautiful dark purple stone that is said to help connect your Heart and Kidneys so you can realize the career path that fits your destiny. Wear Sugilite as a necklace or pendant so it can touch the center of your chest to resonate with your heart center. You can also keep a piece close to you such as in your pocket and place a small specimen on your nightstand to help you find clarity if you are unsure about the path to take in terms of your career.

Turquoise is a popular stone that can be worn for protection during travel.

The Seventh Palace relates to Travel, Adventure and Global Awareness. The popular stone used to help you safely navigate the globe in search of adventurous experiences is Turquoise, a very common stone used in jewelry.

The Eighth Palace of Knowledge and Wisdom relates to both the Water and Earth Elements. Black Obsidian is the stone that helps you go within yourself and bring out your inner wisdom. Obsidian is essentially volcanic glass so it can help your inner wisdom erupt and come to the forefront of your awareness.

Knowledge on the other hand is about attracting information from outside yourself, and White Jade was the stone used historically to support education and worn by the ancient scholars.

And finally, we come to supporting the Ninth Palace of Home. Home is about reconnecting with the Divine. Meteorites which come from the outer realms of space (Heaven) are used for supporting this purpose. Moldavite is one such stone that is becoming a popular jewelry stone used to help connect with the realm of Spirit so you can find peace within yourself wherever you are in this moment of time.

In Summary

Using the power of stones to support the Elemental energies related to each of the Nine Palaces is a simple way to help you move through the challenges in any of these areas of your life.

Though you may at first find the idea of using stones as talismen a bit too esoteric and unfounded on scientific “truth”, if you open your mind and give it a try, you may awaken to the magical mystery of this ancient healing system as it supports you to find gratitude in all areas of your life.

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Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac. is the Founder and Co-Director of A Center for Natural Healing in Santa Clara, California, a wellness clinic that specializes in Classical Chinese Medicine & Japanese Meridian Therapy, a rare non-insertion form of Acupuncture. Salvador also teaches Qi Gong at the Dharma Studio within A Center for Natural Healing.

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How World Events Can Impact Your Health: A Chinese Medicine Perspective

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac.

A few nights before the full moon, I woke up at 1:30 am and after tossing and turning for a while, I simply couldn’t get back to sleep. I finally got up and went to our guest room to do a meditation. At first this settled me quite a bit but within several minutes I felt stricken with a tightness in my chest, difficulty breathing and tension throughout my body.

The anxiety I felt was something I’d never experienced before, and it literally took every tool in my toolbox to get my heart to settle so I could finally go back to sleep.

I woke up exhausted early Monday morning and walked into the kitchen as Salvador read an article aloud about the massacre in Las Vegas. Like most people, I was initially just shocked. But as the reality set in and I read—and bawled over—story after story about the victims, the heroes and their families, a deep sense of grief took over.

Salvador pointed out later that day that there may be a connection between the way I’d been feeling the prior night and the incident. I felt the truth in this right away. 

Even though I didn't personally know anyone involved in the Las Vegas shootings, I felt a deep sense of compassion and empathy for all involved.

The human interconnection is something we all participate in and yet we seem to have lost sight of it lately trying to fit into a race, a gender, a religion, a political party, a certain way of thinking. 

These classifications create a broken nation, a divided world in which brothers and sisters turn against each other and we forget how deeply connected we all are.

But in moments like this, when fear strikes and lives are lost, we realize when other humans suffer, each of us suffer on some level.

Now more than ever, our greatest task is to preserve our health so that we can ultimately begin the healing that the world so desperately needs.

How Trauma Impacts Our Health from a Chinese Medical Point of View

All of us feel the same emotions. These emotions are one of our many common threads as human beings, though we may each process what we feel differently.

Li Dong-yuan, founder of the Earth School in Chinese Medicine, focused on what he referred to as the “five thieves,” or the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, pensiveness, and fright, any of which in excess become pathological. 

All of the emotions that Li Dong-yuan mentioned are excessive emotions that can cause pathology to develop in the body. For example, the Earth attribute of yi, or the mind, which is associated with the Spleen and Stomach, has a tendency to worry or become pensive. Nei Jing Su Wen, an important classical Chinese medical text, stated: “Pensiveness harms the spleen” (Unschuld, 2011, 207). If pensiveness is not properly transformed, it leads to obsession. The attribute of the Heart is known as the spirit, or shen. Over-joy, which includes excessive desires and passions, can overwhelm the Heart and disrupt the shen, since the Heart is the organ that manages joy. Over-joy can transform into anxiety and eventually mania.

According to Chinese Medicine, emotions are merely the movement of qi, or energy, directed by a certain organ, but excessive or repressed emotions have pathological consequences. 

Trauma shocks the entire system, and eventually sets into the internal organ system.

Trauma initially strikes our Kidneys with fear and fright, affecting our adrenal glands, our willpower, and even our faith.

Our Hearts are also affected and since the spirit resides in the Heart from a Chinese Medicine perspective, the spirit suffers as well. We may lose sleep, becoming restless and anxious.

Grief impacts our Lungs and the resulting weakness can cause shortness of breath, coughing, depression and even infections such as pneumonia. Weak Lungs also affect our ability to let go, which is a virtue of the Lungs.

Anger fires up our Liver causing irritability and even affecting the body’s detoxification and digestive processes, which then impacts our ability to assimilate both our food and thoughts.

Trauma can also stir up Wind as a form of resistance to change. (See more about Wind as a challenge to healing in this article)

What You Can Do to Help Yourself

Stress impacts the body and mind on so many levels and tragic events activate our stress response - whether we watch the news, read the paper or hear about it from a friend or family member.

This does not mean you should tune out entirely to protect your health, but it's important not to lose yourself in world events. When it feels like too much, do something nourishing. Cook a warm meal, call up a good friend, or go out and spend time in nature. It's crucial that you learn to consistently take care of yourself.

Self-cultivation and self-care are the only things we can control and the most important way to make a difference in what seems like a wounded, frightening world. 

To do this, we have to take more time alone. Take time to sit quietly, to feel the anger, sadness, fear, hopelessness. As the feelings move through you, you can let them go.

Retreating also allows us to nourish the blood to help open the orifices and eventually make changes in our perception.

Solitude provides space and time to fully process our emotions so we can start to see things more clearly with a greater sense of compassion and less fear. Time alone is important to help the energy of the Heart move back down into the Kidneys so that we feel purposeful and clear. This then calms and pacifies the Wind that stirs us up internally with the changes so that we no longer have the nervousness that prevents us from facing the world and the issues. 

Wearing stones such as Amethyst, Moonstone and Amber help calm the Shen, or spirit, to calm the mind and Heart. Herbs such as biota seeds and jujube seeds help to nourish the Heart. Nourishing the heart means being good to yourself, being kind to yourself and also being kind to the world so that you can develop a greater sense of compassion. 

When we’re healthy and compassionate, we act from a place of love, which allows us to be more available to support others who aren’t as strong or who are going through a difficult time.

Once you calm your Shen and nourish your Heart, you begin to open the orifices to change your perception of the world. 

As we change inside our bodies, the Yang of the Kidneys will support us to move through the difficult changes in our lives. Pacifying Wind through calming practices helps settle the Yang to have the courage to make change.

Only when we’re healthy and empowered can we truly make a difference. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The more love we cultivate within ourselves, the more this love ripples into the world.

Our fundamental emotions, arguably the only emotions, are fear and love. The opposite of love is fear, not hate. The only way back to love is through a change in the perception of the world and the eradication of all other emotions that represent fear.

The first step to make this change is to recognize what we actually feel. Only then can we move through these feelings and channel their energy toward making positive changes in the world.

Our teacher, 88th generation Daoist Master Jeffrey Yuen has said many times: "The consciousness that brought on the disease cannot be the same consciousness that brings about healing." This goes for our individual healing and for the healing of the world as a whole.

A Meditation to Support You

Many years ago, I developed the BEME Meditation, which stands for Body, Emotions, Mind and Environment. Becoming aware of each of these aspects builds a deeper consciousness that connects us to how we truly feel. 

Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help us be more present, and can be profound to help settle the mind during difficult times. A calm mind becomes a clear mind and eventually provides the foundation for guiding the change that brings about healing.

You can practice this 10-minute meditation daily from the comfort of your home.

What You Can Do To Help Others

There are so many people who need our help right now. Here are a few ideas on what you can do for the victims and families affected by the recent tragedies:

Las Vegas

Puerto Rico

California

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Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. is Co-Owner and Director of A Center for Natural Healing in Santa Clara, California, a health and wellness clinic that specializes in Classical Chinese Medicine and Traditional Japanese Acupuncture. Dr. Moafi offers clinical services and transformational workshops that blend the ancient practices of Classical Chinese Medicine and Yoga. More information at www.setarehmoafi.com and www.acenterfornaturalhealing.com.